Epitaxial films of semiconducting FeSi2 on (001) silicon

Abstract

Epitaxial thin films of the semiconducting transition metal silicide, beta-FeSi2, were grown on (001) silicon wafers. The observed matching face relationship is FeSi2(100)/Si(001), with the azimuthal orientation being FeSi2[010]‖‖Si〈110〉. This heteroepitaxial relationship has a common unit mesh of 59 Å2 area, with a mismatch of 2.1%. There is a strong tendency toward island formation within this heteroepitaxial system.

Surface electron-diffraction patterns of β-FeSi2 films epitaxially grown on silicon

“…The two heteroepitaxial relationships that have been observed for epitaxial films grown on the Si(OOl) face are 2 The matching face parts of these two relationships are identical, but the azimuthal orientations differ by a rotation of 45• about the substrate surface normal. As illustrated in Fig.…”

“…10 For epitaxy on Si ( 111), there is a second type of twinning that could occur. In addition to the possible azimuthal rotations of 120• among crystallographically equivalent directions of the substrate surface, there could be a rotation of 1so· such that the f3-FeSi 2 pertain to films grown on Si(OOl).] This behavior may be extrapolated to the case of /3-FeSi 2 because its crystal structure is a distortion of the cubic fluorite structure and one may establish a correspondence between the two lattices.…”

Realization of high quality epitaxial current- perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistive pseudo spin-valves on Si(001) wafer using NiAl buffer layer

“…1(c)). First, 50 nm thick NiAl was deposited on a Si substrate by a reactive deposition epitaxy (RDE) method, 22,23 i.e., by deposition onto a heated substrate, with an elevated temperature ranging from T s = 300 to 600 • C. The composition of a NiAl alloy target was Ni 0.5 Al 0.5 . Thereafter, 50 nm thick Ag was deposited at RT on the NiAl layer to serve as a bottom electrode for an MR measurement.…”

Electrical Properties of RF-Sputtered FeSi_x Films and Their Relationship to Phase Transition from ε-FeSi to β-FeSi₂ during Post-Annealing

“…Therefore, reactive deposition epitaxy (RDE) [6], ion beam synthesis (IBS) [7] and RF sputtering are generally used. RF sputtering method is very simple in all.…”